Al Gore likes to style himself a latter-day prophet, crisscrossing the country speaking about global warming and the need to address it before it’s too late.
He also gets paid $100,000 a pop for many appearances, which he can justify as a former vice president and Nobel Prize winner. But his standard speaking contract also bars any press from covering his speeches, which is a source of growing consternation among media organizations.
The conflict is coming to a boil with his keynote address slated to be delivered next month before a convention of information security specialists. The RSA Security event at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, April 7-11, is expected to draw 17,000 participants. RSA exhorted media organizations to cover the conference, but noted they could not cover Gore’s address.
“It’s definitely not something that we asked for,” said Alex Kirschner, media contact for RSA. “From what we understand, it’s a standard part of his contract.”
Last summer, the Smoking Gun published a copy of Gore’s standard contract, which not only stipulates that press coverage be barred, but that those and other conditions of the contract not be disclosed. It also requires that he be provided “a sedan, NOT an SUV,” and that every effort be made to use a hybrid.
While his travel requirements make sense given the nature of his crusade, his press prohibition seems disingenuous. Is he that much of a control freak? Or is he interested in spreading the message of global warming only when he gets a cut of the action?
It seems particularly strange given his role as chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, whose mission is “mass persuasion” about global warming. It’s even odder since he is also an owner of Current Media, which relies on user-submitted content, and even did a stint at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Maybe it’s time he had a chat with one of his Current Media partners - Orville Schell, former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
The ban notwithstanding, our prediction is that the speech will be picked up from the personal gadgets of all the technology geeks attending the conference, and blasted out to the world from there.
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2 Comments
#1. martin 03.27.2008
What’s up with Gore? A would-be shaper of opinion who demands that only those who are physically in his presence may hear his utterances?
#2. Jerry Aupak 06.13.2008
I’ve tried to reach Al, just like I’ve tried to reach our Prime Minister and tell him about what I think about the “Climate Change”. I don’t know what their status are because I live near the north pole, at least much closer to there than you! Haha. I have my perspective written and I wanted to email it to someone who can give it to Al Gore. I’ve already gave it to my Prime Minister, and I want to give it to Al. Can anyone help me? I perceice that you have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA as to this climate change, and your ideas seem to change a little, maybe my idea is true afterall, the rotation of the earth, combined with the gravity. If you really care about our climate, I can help observe too because I live up in the arctic. Maybe you need someone who lives up north all their lives to get an idea of the weather that has been changing noticeably!
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